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Koizumi's shrine visit draws rage, protests
By Guo Nei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-18 05:51
![Protestors holding a banner march to the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong October 17,2005 to protest against Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The banner in Chinese reads, 'Shame on Japanese militarism'. [Reuters]](xin_2710021717298671032916.jpg)
Protestors holding a banner march to the
Japanese consulate in Hong Kong October 17,2005 to protest against
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine.
The banner in Chinese reads, 'Shame on Japanese militarism'.
[Reuters] |
"The will of the people cannot be insulted," the statement quoted a Chinese
proverb, adding that "anyone who goes against the trends of the times will let
down both ancestors and descendants, and will eventually 'lift a rock only to
drop it on his own feet'," it said.
Also yesterday, Chinese Ambassador to Japan Wang Yi sternly criticized
Koizumi for his shrine visit.
The Chinese Government firmly opposes such visits at any time and in any
form, he said.
A sign denouncing
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is seen during an anti-Japan
protest near the Japanese embassy in Seoul October 17,
2005. [Reuters] | Koizumi must "take the
historic responsibility for undermining the bilateral relationship," he said.
He called the visit a "serious provocation to the Chinese people," pointing
out that it came just hours after China's second manned space mission returned
to Earth.
In Beijing, a dozen demonstrators, waving banners, handed over a petition at
the Japanese Embassy to protest against Koizumi's visit to the war shrine. "They
(the Japanese invaders) have trampled their feet in the blood of Asia's people,"
protester Zhang Jianyong read from a statement in front of the embassy.
In Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon summoned Japanese
Ambassador Shotaro Oshima to protest the visit, expressing Seoul's "deep
regrets."
"It's not an exaggeration to say that Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to the
Yasukuni Shrine has been the biggest stumbling block that has strained South
Korea-Japan relations," Ban told Oshima.
"Our government has repeatedly requested that he not visit the shrine, which
enshrines war criminals who inflicted indescribable suffering and pain in the
past."
Later yesterday, South Korea's presidential spokesman Kim Man-soo said a
summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and Koizumi scheduled later this year
would be "difficult."
(China Daily 10/18/2005 page1)
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